Gap Junction Channels and Hemichannels

Gap Junction Channels and Hemichannels PDF Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9780367658441
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Gap junction channels are a group of intercellular channels expressed in tissues and organs to synchronize many physiological processes. A gap junction channel is formed by the docking of two hemichannels, and each hemichannel is a hexamer of connexins. The field of gap junction channel and hemichannel research has recently exploded and became one of the most active areas of cell biology. Numerous novel approaches and techniques have been developed, but there is no single book dedicated to the unique techniques and protocols employed for the research on these large pore channels. This book fills the gap and focuses on protocols, approaches and reviews of gap junction channels and connexin hemichannels. It will be a useful reference for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers. Anyone with an interest in gap junction channels and hemichannels will need this summary of state-of-the-art techniques and protocols.

Gap Junction Channels and Hemichannels

Gap Junction Channels and Hemichannels PDF Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9780367658441
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Gap junction channels are a group of intercellular channels expressed in tissues and organs to synchronize many physiological processes. A gap junction channel is formed by the docking of two hemichannels, and each hemichannel is a hexamer of connexins. The field of gap junction channel and hemichannel research has recently exploded and became one of the most active areas of cell biology. Numerous novel approaches and techniques have been developed, but there is no single book dedicated to the unique techniques and protocols employed for the research on these large pore channels. This book fills the gap and focuses on protocols, approaches and reviews of gap junction channels and connexin hemichannels. It will be a useful reference for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers. Anyone with an interest in gap junction channels and hemichannels will need this summary of state-of-the-art techniques and protocols.

Gap Junctions in the Nervous System

Gap Junctions in the Nervous System PDF Author: David C. Spray
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3662219352
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
This book deals with the types of gap junction proteins (connexins) and their distribution within the nervous system, the physiological properties of channels formed of each connexin, and the role of gap junction channels in functions of normal and pathological brain and peripheral nerve. Although glial tissue is emphasized, additional groups of chapters deal with neurons in the central nervous system and with the retina.

Intercellular Communication through Gap Junctions

Intercellular Communication through Gap Junctions PDF Author: Y. Kanno
Publisher: Newnes
ISBN: 0444599525
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
Research on intercellular communication through gap junctions has continued to expand, and the meeting on which this book is based brought together many scientists from many different countries and disciplines. In line with the objective of the meeting, this volume focuses on the biological meaning of intercellular communication through gap junctions in various organs. The most recent up-to-date findings have been included in this extensive volume, valuable to all those interested in this rapidly expanding field.

Regenerative Pharmacology

Regenerative Pharmacology PDF Author: George J. Christ
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521899494
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
A state-of-the-art primer on the role of pharmacological sciences in regenerative medicine, for advanced students, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers.

Astrocytes and Epilepsy

Astrocytes and Epilepsy PDF Author: Jacqueline A. Hubbard
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128026243
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
Epilepsy is a devastating group of neurological disorders characterized by periodic and unpredictable seizure activity in the brain. There is a critical need for new drugs and approaches given than at least one-third of all epilepsy patients are not made free of seizures by existing medications and become "medically refractory". Much of epilepsy research has focused on neuronal therapeutic targets, but current antiepileptic drugs often cause severe cognitive, developmental, and behavioral side effects. Recent findings indicate a critical contribution of astrocytes, star-shaped glial cells in the brain, to neuronal and network excitability and seizure activity. Furthermore, many important cellular and molecular changes occur in astrocytes in epileptic tissue in both humans and animal models of epilepsy. The goal of Astrocytes and Epilepsy is to comprehensively review exciting findings linking changes in astrocytes to functional changes responsible for epilepsy for the first time in book format. These insights into astrocyte contribution to seizure susceptibility indicate that astrocytes may represent an important new therapeutic target in the control of epilepsy. Astrocytes and Epilepsy includes background explanatory text on astrocyte morphology and physiology, epilepsy models and syndromes, and evidence from both human tissue studies and animal models linking functional changes in astrocytes to epilepsy. Beautifully labelled diagrams are presented and relevant figures from the literature are reproduced to elucidate key findings and concepts in this rapidly emerging field. Astrocytes and Epilepsy is written for neuroscientists, epilepsy researchers, astrocyte investigators as well as neurologists and other specialists caring for patients with epilepsy. - Presents the first comprehensive book to synthesize historical and recent research on astrocytes and epilepsy into one coherent volume - Provides a great resource on the field of astrocyte biology and astrocyte-neuron interactions - Details potential therapeutic targets, including chapters on gap junctions, water and potassium channels, glutamate and adenosine metabolism, and inflammation

Astrocytes in (Patho)Physiology of the Nervous System

Astrocytes in (Patho)Physiology of the Nervous System PDF Author: Vladimir Parpura
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387794921
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 701

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Book Description
Astrocytes were the original neuroglia that Ramón y Cajal visualized in 1913 using a gold sublimate stain. This stain targeted intermediate filaments that we now know consist mainly of glial fibrillary acidic protein, a protein used today as an astrocytic marker. Cajal described the morphological diversity of these cells with some ast- cytes surrounding neurons, while the others are intimately associated with vasculature. We start the book by discussing the heterogeneity of astrocytes using contemporary tools and by calling into question the assumption by classical neuroscience that neurons and glia are derived from distinct pools of progenitor cells. Astrocytes have long been neglected as active participants in intercellular communication and information processing in the central nervous system, in part due to their lack of electrical excitability. The follow up chapters review the “nuts and bolts” of ast- cytic physiology; astrocytes possess a diverse assortment of ion channels, neu- transmitter receptors, and transport mechanisms that enable the astrocytes to respond to many of the same signals that act on neurons. Since astrocytes can detect chemical transmitters that are released from neurons and can release their own extracellular signals there is an increasing awareness that they play physiological roles in regulating neuronal activity and synaptic transmission. In addition to these physiological roles, it is becoming increasingly recognized that astrocytes play critical roles during pathophysiological states of the nervous system; these states include gliomas, Alexander disease, and epilepsy to mention a few.

Gap Junctions in Development and Disease

Gap Junctions in Development and Disease PDF Author: Elke Winterhager
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783540261568
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Communication between cells via intercellular channels – gap junctions – appears essential to certain developmental processes and appropriate organ function. Gap Junctions in Development and Disease aims to describe the molecular events underlying impaired development and disease. Beginning with a comprehensive review of various mouse and human genes encoding the channel-forming connexins, later chapters describe several connexin mutations associated with human diseases such as hereditary deafness and female infertility. Erroneous signaling mediated by the interaction of mutant connexins with other proteins, thought to be responsible for dysfunction of organs such as heart, muscle, brain, skin, lens, placenta, and endocrine tissue in both mice and men, is also addressed. Although the question of why some mutations in gap-junction proteins lead to specific phenotypes remains to be answered, the reviews in this book provide an intriguing insight into the future direction of this research field.

Functional Ultrastructure

Functional Ultrastructure PDF Author: Margit Pavelka
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3211993908
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The period between 1950 and 1980 were the golden unique insights into how pathological processes affect years of transmission electron microscopy and produced cell organization. a plethora of new information on the structure of cells This information is vital to current work in which that was coupled to and followed by biochemical and the emphasis is on integrating approaches from functional studies. TEM was king and each micrograph proteomics, molecular biology, genetics, genomics, of a new object produced new information that led to molecular imaging and physiology and pathology to novel insights on cell and tissue organization and their understand cell functions and derangements in disease. functions. The quality of data represented by the images In this current era, there is a growing tendency to of cell and tissues had been perfected to a very high level substitut e modern light microscopic techniques for by the great microscopists of that era including Palade, electron microscopy, because it is less technically Porter, Fawcett, Sjostrand, Rhodin and many others. At demanding and is more readily available to researchers- present, the images that we see in leading journals for This atlas reminds us that the information obtained by the most part do not reach the same technical level and electron microscopy is invaluable and has no substitute.

Cardiac Cell Biology

Cardiac Cell Biology PDF Author: Elissavet Kardami
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402072963
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Cardiac cell biology has come of age. Recognition of activated or modified signaling molecules by specific antibodies, new selective inhibitors, and fluorescent fusion tags are but a few of the tools used to dissect signaling pathways and cross-talk mechanisms that may eventually allow rational drug design. Understanding the regulation of cardiac hypertrophy in all its complexity remains a fundamental goal of cardiac research. Since the advancement of adenovirally mediated gene transfer, transfection efficiency is no longer a limiting factor in the study of cardiomyocytes. A limiting factor in considering cell transplantion as a strategy to repair the damaged heart is cell availability at the right time. Cardiac gap junctions, intercellular communication channels that allow electrical and metabolic coupling and play an important role in arrhythmogenesis are now understood to be exquisite sensors of cardiac change. The reports in this volume incLude elegant studies that made use of cutting edge technological advances and many specialized reagents to address these issues.

Cardiac Arrhythmias

Cardiac Arrhythmias PDF Author: Ambrose S. Kibos
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1447153162
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 678

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Book Description
This book covers all the major aspects associated with pathophysiological development of cardiac arrhythmias (covering enhanced or suppressed automaticity, triggered activity, or re-entry), from basic concepts through disease association, limitations of current pharmacotherapy and implant therapies and on-going trials and analysis of new biomarkers based on current knowledge of cellular interaction and signalling. The book describes novel and state-of-the-art methods for differentiating between the major types of arrhythmia, structural abnormalities and current practice guidelines and determination of risk stratification associated with sudden cardiac death. A particular focus is on arrhythmias associated with atrial fibrillation and includes details of associations with cardiac disease, current detection, analysis and imaging and future perspectives.​